The time to buy stocks is when there is "blood in the streets" while others are fearful and selling. In late August through early September of 2015, my investor sentiment charts were screaming BUY and I added to many positions during this time. I took profits as the market rose into the end of the year.

The markets fell again in early 2016 with SPY and the S&P 500 testing their 2015 lows while the Russell 2000 and Nasdaq went even lower. I added again to positions. Then as the markets and my stocks recovered, I took profits.

On 2/11/16, on an intraday basis, the S&P 500 was down 14.4% from its record high. Currently, as of today's current price, the S&P 500 is back to single digits, down only 1.9% from its record high close. When you add it the 2.10% dividend for the S&P 500, you are back to even if you bought at the high over a year ago.

TABLE 1: Current Market Levels Compared with Benchmarks

Chart 1: S&P 500 Price & Yield ($SPX & !YLDSPX) with SPY Over Time

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On Feb. 11, 2016, in "With SPY Down 14% Again, Sentiment Charts Suggest Another Tradable Low" and SPY at $182.20 before adjusting for dividends, I wrote, "Now I believe we are in another good time to add to positions." I added to my positions during the decline. Here is my "Market Update" from that article showing all four major markets intraday were below the 8/25/15 low:

Today SPY adjusted for dividends was down 0.75% or $1.58 from its record intraday high of $210.92 on 4/20/16. Notice on my chart that SPY pierced its 50-day moving average, MA(50), on the chart below before turning higher.

This chart shows the S&P 500 and SPY were down over 14% from their record intraday highs three times since last summer. All were great times to buy or add to your positions.

Chart 2: SPY Intraday Adjusted for Dividends Over Time

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Every week I review my sentiment charts of the weekly data. In this article, I compare the sentiment levels from various surveys in my table to get an idea of overall investor sentiment.

After making his fortune buying during the panic that after Napoleon's Battle of Waterloo, 18th-century British nobleman and member of the Rothschild banking family, Baron Nathan Rothschild, is often credited for telling his clients that "The time to buy is when there's blood in the streets." (See "When There's Blood In The Streets.")

For those looking for something more recent and true than the Rothschild story, on page 4 of his 2004 Chairman's letter Warren Buffet, who is probably one of the greatest investors of all time, wrote, "Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies. And if they insist on trying to time their participation in equities, they should try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful."

I've explained in past articles such as "SPY 8% Off Record High While WLI Rises To 6-Week High" why I like SPY as an investment for the long term. I use fundamentals to pick individual stocks and SPY for my portfolio, but I seldom buy as they are making new 52-week highs. I try to buy when they are on sale and when the blood is running in the streets.

To get better prices, I start with my list of "Explore Portfolio" stock picks then wait for market pullbacks and extreme negative sentiment levels to buy if they haven't quite reached the "low ball" prices I set ahead of time to buy during market panics and other periods of market inefficiency. Said another way, I like to take profits as markets make new highs then buy back shares when my sentiment charts loudly shout at once "Buy" as most investors are afraid and selling.

On August 25, 2015, when the S&P 500 made its closing low for the year, most of my sentiment indicators were at screaming buy levels not seen since the 21% bear market correction in 2011. Below is a market summary for the 8/25/15 closing prices showing four major indexes were down double digits from record highs. Several of the stocks I bought during that time last year recovered and I took some profits as sentiment recovered. Now I am ready to buy again if the markets go lower to hit my buy zones with a further decline in sentiment or take more profits if the markets continue higher.

These AAII numbers are posted weekly here on Seeking Alpha. From AAII Sentiment Indicator, "The sentiment survey, taken once a week on the AAII web site, measures the percentage of individual investors who take the survey who are bullish, neutral and bearish."

From Investors' Intelligence Sentiment Indicator: The "Investors Intelligence Survey or IIS questions stock-market newsletter writers once a week to see if they were bullish or bearish on the stock markets in the near-term". Newsletter writers have a large following as a group and are thus considered "market experts." See Investor's Intelligence web site for more information.

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Chart 5b: II: Investor's Intelligence Survey

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Chart 5c: II: Investor's Intelligence Survey

In an attempt to account from those who are "neutral" this graph shows the percentage of bulls divided by the percentage of bulls plus bears.

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Chart 6: Ticker Sense Blogger Sentiment vs. S&P 500

From Ticker Sense Blogger Sentiment Poll: "The Ticker Sense Blogger Sentiment Poll is a survey of the web's most prominent investment bloggers, asking "What is your outlook on the S&P 500 for the next 30 days?" Conducted on a weekly basis, the poll is sent to participants each Thursday, and the results are released on Ticker Sense each Monday. The goal of this poll is to gain a consensus view on the market from the top investment bloggers - a community that continues to grow as a valued source of investment insight. Copyright 2015 Ticker Sense Blogger Sentiment Poll."

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Chart 7: NAAIM Exposure Index

From NAAIM Exposure Index - National Association of Active Investment Managers, "The NAAIM Exposure Index represents the average exposure to US Equity markets reported by our members."

Source: NAAIM

Note, the above NAAIM data is current through 5/25/16 but the chart has an error that they have said for months "will be corrected shortly."

Today (5/26/16) = -0.37 -> Since last week, it is moving towards "Panic"

Last week (5/19/16) = -0.33

From Citigroup's Panic - Euphoria Model where I show charts of the data back to 1987: "The panic/euphoria model is a gauge of investor sentiment. It identifies "Panic" and "Euphoria" levels which are statistically driven buy and sell signals for the broader market. Historically, a reading below panic supports a better than 95% likelihood that stock prices will be higher one year later, while euphoria levels generate a better than 70% probability of stock prices being lower one year later."

If anyone has access to the raw panic/euphoria data to draw charts back to 1987, then please contact me.

Chart 10: SPY Charts

The top (black) curve is SPY adjusted for dividends. The middle (green) curve is SPY prices not adjusted for dividends. The bottom (orange) curve is the yield of the S&P 500 which closely matches the yield of SPY less the small management fee.

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From charting sentiment for nearly 20 years, I've observed that major market (S&P 500 or SPY) bottoms usually line up well with major spikes in the sentiment charts. The absolute levels are not as important as the relative levels of sentiment. For example, notice how the two biggest declines in SPY since the bottom in 2009 align with the two largest spikes in charts 1a and 1b above.

Summary:

I find it helpful to have two monitors so I can pull up my last article to compare the charts side-by-side.

Before last year's correction over 10%, corrections were generally 3% to 8% with pundits saying wait for a 10% pullback to get into the market. Over the past year, we've had three market declines over 10% from the top, roughly 14% each, yet few of these pundits appear to have jumped on the bull train. The latest pullback of only 3.5% appears enough to have made several negative sentiment spikes that signal the markets can go higher before the next big pullback.

The charts in this week's update show the markets successfully tested the January 2016 and August 2015 intraday lows. On Feb. 11 in "With SPY Down 14% Again, Sentiment Charts Suggest Another Tradable Low" I wrote, "This should be another great time to add to positions for a tradable rally." The markets bottomed and SPY has rallied to recover virtually all of its decline.

Many of my sentiment indicators show bullishness has returned from the "fat-pitch lows" so I remain cautious in the short-term. In the longer term, bullishness is far below levels seen at major market tops. Some backing and filling, perhaps back to the 200- and 50-day moving averages for SPY (and many stocks I took profits in during March and April) would be bullish if it came with another nice decline in market sentiment.

Notes

I trade SPY around a core position in my newsletter's "Explore Portfolio" and with my personal account. With dividends reinvested, my newsletter's explore portfolio holds 139.648 shares of SPY with a "break-even" price, after the 4/29/16 dividend, of $97.72. I also have the index fund version of SPY in both my newsletter's "core" portfolios.

SPY is the exchange-traded fund for the S&P 500 Index.

VTI is Vanguard's "Total Stock Market" exchange-traded fund If you want to invest in a single fund, that is my first choice over SPY. I recommend SPY and several other ETFs (or their index fund equivalents at Vanguard and Fidelity) in my core portfolios for more opportunities to rebalance between these funds.

VOO is Vanguard's newer (than SPY) exchange-traded fund that tracks the S&P 500 Index. It is a lower cost alternative to SPY. I own and write about SPY, as I have many years of data for it, but VOO could do slightly better than SPY over time because it has a lower expense ratio.

Disclosure: I am long SPY and own the traditional index fund versions of VTI and VOO bought long ago in various taxable and tax deferred accounts.

Disclosure:I am/we are long SPY.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.